In cases of severe obesity, patients may currently undergo several types of surgery either to tie off or staple portions of the large or small intestine or stomach, and/or to bypass portions of the same to reduce the amount of food desired by the patient, and the amount absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. The procedures currently available include laparoscopic banding, where a device is used to “tie off” or constrict a portion of the stomach, vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG), or a more invasive surgical procedure known as a Roux-En-Y gastric bypass to effect permanent surgical reduction of the stomach's volume and subsequent bypass of the intestine.
Typically, these stomach reduction procedures are performed surgically through an open incision and staples or sutures are applied externally to the stomach or hollow body organ. Such procedures can also be performed laparoscopically, through the use of smaller incisions, or ports, through trocars and other specialized devices. In the case of laparoscopic banding, an adjustable band is placed around the proximal section of the stomach reaching from the lesser curve (LC) of the stomach around to the greater curve (GC), thereby creating a constriction or “waist” in a vertical manner between the esophagus (ES) and the pylorus (PY) (See Prior Art FIG. 1). During a VBG (See Prior Art FIG. 2) a small pouch (P) (approximately 20 cc in volume) is constructed by forming a vertical partition from the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) to midway down the lesser curvature of the stomach by externally applying staples, and optionally dividing or resecting a portion of the stomach, followed by creation of a stoma (ST) at the outlet of the partition to prevent dilation of the outlet channel and restrict intake. In a Roux-En-Y gastric bypass (see Prior Art FIG. 3), the stomach is surgically divided into a smaller upper pouch connected to the esophageal inflow, and a lower portion, detached from the upper pouch but still connected to the intestinal tract for purposes of secreting digestive juices. A resected portion of the small intestine is then anastomosed using an end-to-side anastomosis to the upper pouch, thereby bypassing the majority of the intestine and reducing absorption of caloric intake and causing rapid “dumping” of highly caloric or “junk foods”.
Although the outcome of these stomach reduction surgeries leads to patient weight loss because patients are physically forced to eat less due to the reduced size of their stomach, several limitations exist due to the invasiveness of the procedures, including time, general anesthesia, healing of the incisions and other complications attendant to major surgery. In addition, these procedures are only available to a small segment of the obese population (morbid obesity, Body Mass Index≧40) due to their complications, leaving patients who are considered obese or moderately obese with few, if any, interventional options.
In addition to surgical procedures, certain tools exist for approximating or otherwise securing tissue such as the stapling devices used in the above-described surgical procedures and others such as in the treatment of gastroesophogeal reflux (GERD). These devices include the GIA® device (Gastrointestinal Anastomosis device manufactured by Ethicon Endosurgery, Inc. and a similar product by USSC), and certain clamping and stapling devices as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,897,562 and 5,571,116 and 5,676,674, Non-Invasive Apparatus for Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (Bolanos, et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,326 Method for Performing a Gastric Wrap of the Esophagus for Use in the Treatment of Esophageal Reflux (Harrison et al) for methods and devices for fundoplication of the stomach to the esophagus for treatment of gastro esophageal reflux (GERD). In addition, certain tools as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,983 Tissue Cutting and Stitching Device and Method (Solar et al), detail an endoscopic suturing device (C.R. Bard, Inc., Billerica, Mass.) that is inserted through an endoscope and placed at the site where the esophagus and the stomach meet. Vacuum is then applied to acquire the adjacent tissue, and a series of stitches are placed to create a pleat in the sphincter to reduce the backflow of acid from the stomach up through the esophagus. These devices can also be used transorally for the endoscopic treatment of esophageal varices (dilated blood vessels within the wall of the esophagus).
Further, certain devices are employed to approximate tissue such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,897 (Pietrafitta) describing the use of a circular stapler to perform a pyloroplasty to create a narrowing at the pylorus. In addition, intraluminal anastomosis, such as bowel anastomosis, use suturing or stapling and employ tools such as the circular stapler, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,927 (Welch), U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,579 (Schnut et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,008 (Gallagher et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,943 (Sauer), U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,639 (Sauer), U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,581 (Robertson et al), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,913 (Adams et al). Such circular staplers are available from Ethicon Endosurgery, Cincinnati, Ohio (Proximate™ and EndoPath Stealth™ staplers, see www.surgicalstapling.com), Power Medical Interventions, New Hope, Pa., and United States Surgical, a unit of Tyco Healthcare Group LP, Norwalk, Conn.
There is a need for improved devices and procedures. In addition, because of the invasiveness of most of the surgeries used to treat obesity, and the limited success of others, there remains a need for improved devices and methods for more effective, less invasive hollow organ restriction procedures.